Jacques Simonieux
by Carolyn1776
Summary: Planning to meet with his brother in South Carolina, a young Frenchman and his wife board the wrong ship and end up in Chester, Pennsylvania.
1. Chapter 1

**Jacques Simonieux **

**Ch. 1 **

Toulouse, France 1776

The 20 year-old French candlemaker was late in the process of preparing for marriage to pretty, brown-haired Isabelle Chouvais, the daughter of a local wine merchant who had serviced the Simonieux family for years. The wedding was to take place later that month of September. He was enjoying the stage of finally belonging in to proper social circles among the married tradesmen of the city by being formally and officially spoken for earlier that year. Isabelle was considered a quite suitable mate at the same age as him, with a good Catholic upbringing and a healthy familiarity with him from their school days. In full medical procedure, her physical constitution had been carefully examined for childbearing beforehand, with both families in attendance to be reassured that the recurring scourge of infant deaths would not plague the young lady. Thankfully to all concerned, the fiancée was regarded to be not too delicate to withstand a successful brood and a prudent lady found with not the slightest ailment of any sort. Proudly placed in the salon of the Simonieux family home, the doctor's record deeming her fit for all wifely and motherly duties sat on a fine table next to the small head portrait of him. He looked at both the note and the portrait lovingly. The portrait was painted by a longtime friend of the family Jean-Marie-Joseph Ingres, an excellent decorator and draftsman who was teaching a drawing class for art students in nearby rural area Montauban. After at first being just a good, regular customer of the Simonieux candle shop, Monsieur Ingres had become a well appreciated, trustworthy visitor to the household, faithfully attending every one of their special occasions and the wedding would be no exception. Free of charge, five years before he had painted miniature portraits of the entire Simonieux family, all displayed in the salon. Unsurprisingly, he offered to paint a portrait of Isabelle soon after the wedding day, as a gift, of course. The features in the painting did Jacques good justice to his real appearance. He resembled most his mother Hélène, with wavy auburn hair and her lips with the shape of a diamond stretched at both left and right ends, a mildly elf-like nose and almond-shaped brown eyes. He thought of himself fortunate to be found of such pleasing appearance to Isabelle even when they were children. Like his two older brothers Pierre-François and Rémy, he bore a slightly tanned, Mediterranean tone to his skin, much unlike the painted white faces of the Parisian dandies of the day. His 19 year-old sister Babette was fair-skinned with a beauty of face that attracted silversmith Jean-Luc Charbois who her mother declared should be her suitor. To the frustration of her mother, she made a habit of avoiding Jean-Luc's calling by sneaking away to spend time with the only one her heart yearned for – an Italian boy from the Toulouse orchestra. Her music-loving beau impressed her by claiming that he had once been personally applauded by Antonio Solieri – Austria's royal court composer who would attain notoriety as the unsuccessful rival to the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. To improve the charm of the story, he emphasized the coincidence of the Austrian emperor being the brother of Queen Marie Antoinette. To criticize the love affair, her mother insisted that the story was a falsehood. The youngest in the family, Marie Simonieux had tragically died in a carriage accident at the age of 12 three years before.

She was not the first to have ever been chosen to be his wife. When he was at the age of 16 and eager to be married and start his own family like his oldest brother Rémy did, he became married to a quiet young woman of the same age named Nathalie, a baker's daughter. The following year she had died of what a few of the townspeople of Toulouse thought was syphillus. During the time the rumor had somehow been spread, Jacques had been stricken aghast with horror for a spell when a detail implied that the disease in her had been contracted from another young man in the city. As it turned out, the rumors were rendered untrue when a better-educated doctor who had come all the way from Switzerland had surmised that the death was caused by some kind of blood disease unable to be explained let alone cured. With Isabelle presumed to be waiting in tow the entire time after the death, Jacques never forgot the tragedy of it. As far as their families, including Nathalie's knew, Isabelle had never even known she existed. The mystery of who started the rumor and why would remain in the Simonieux family.

His father Jean-Louis was the first to notice that his son was somewhat frustrated about having to wait until Isabelle's father would come back from Poland on business before the time of the wedding. But to the rest of the family that was no dire matter. During visits with friends, from time to time Jean-Louis as the master of the house had to think of ways to explain away the strange case of his son Pierre-François as a well-mannered, handsome, healthy 23 year-old never having been married or even reportedly ever fallen in love. Pierre-François physically took after his father, with brown wavy hair and an oval-shaped face that was fuller than that of Jacques, and with thicker eyebrows, and with a fuller nose. The Madame and Monsieur had tried to match him with nice ladies of reasonably fair countenance who would take a liking to him and in a few cases expressed fondness openly, but there seemed be no manly interest by him for any of them. Though never bringing it up to other members of the family, at least not yet, Jacques knew Pierre-François would find himself a wife on his own accord. The two brothers had been closest in personal communication due to their working with each other in the candle making room of the shop every day, while oldest brother Rémy would be the one to manage the vending of the candles, including deliveries. Rémy's wife was pregnant with their third child and he contributed sufficiently, proud of the fact that the family candle business was rarely troubled.

Unlike many people of Paris, the Simonieux family was not one to discuss politics much less exchange questionable opinions about the king, and even more notably his choice for a queen. Political affairs would seem like a distant province to Jacques and Pierre-François until the following morning after the family's dinner with Monsieur Ingres, who had come to the Simonieux home to ask about the upcoming wedding and kindly plan for an evening at the next Toulouse symphony concert to celebrate.

Back to work as usual at the candle shop with their aprons on and hair tied back in a ribbon medium-length tail, Jacques and Pierre-François noticed a portly man about town walk in. They had never seen him before. He had a wooden cane, a snowy-white powdered wig and the smell of someone who frequently conducted business with seamen. He did not come to talk about candles.

"Bonjour, les jeunes messieurs. Je voudrais proposer quelque chose à vous. D'abord, connaissez-vous parler anglais?"

("Good morning, young sirs. I would like to propose something to you. First, do you know how to speak English?")

Jacques saw Pierre-François gesture to himself quickly, then wipe his wax-caked fingers on his apron. He could tell by the man's accent that he was French, so it was apparent that the man was not asking the question for his own sake. Jacques remembered well when Pierre-François had Wednesday evening English language lessons from a bookseller named Phillipe Gaubin, beginning sometime in 1769 and ending in December of 1773. Monsieur Gaubin had told the family how he had learned English himself during a long-term stay in the American colony of Pennsylvania, speaking like an English colonial as opposed to talking in the accent of the people of England. The dialect of the Colonies was what Pierre-François once said he strongly preferred. The bookseller would come over to the Simonieux home, when the other members of the household would have to go upstairs so that the private lessons would not be disturbed. Pierre-François was the only Simonieux family member who had any interest in making use of Monsieur Gaubin's English language tutoring services. When asked what inspired him to want to learn English, Pierre-François explained that it was the language of somebody from the Colonies he and many other French people, most fashionably in Paris, admired greatly as a scientist, inventor, and philosopher – Benjamin Franklin. Jacques recalled the gift that the man had given Pierre-François at the conclusion of the studies as a thoughtful reward for excellent progress – a copy of Poor Richard's Almanac.

The man who came into the shop continued.

"C'est mes affairs mais c'est aussi politique. À Paris on sait que les nouvelles a l'Àmerique du nord deviennent plus et plus intéressantes. Pour la première fois, il y existe des colons qui veulent couper le règle brittanique complètement, et tout contre le roi George le troisième. Ils ont déclaré leur pays d'etre libre! Imaginez-ça! Bien sur, le roi d'Angleterre est terriblement en colère, et les Anglais veulent bloquer tous les routes de nos produits envoyés à travers le Mer Atlantique, tout pour détruire le marchet entre nous et les colons. Hélas, les Brittaniques restent nos énnemies. Si seulement j'aurais pu voir le regard sur son visage quand il a vu la déclaration – une déclaration écrit à quitter sa controle des colons et les Colonies au meme temps. Quelle courage, les colons là-bas! Alors, jeune messieur, ça signifie, pour moi et quelques autres ici en France qu'on a besoin de fournir des routes sécrètes pour maintenir nos affairs, et donc on a besoin aucuns gars qui peuvent parler anglais pour conduire les échanges sécrètes."

("It's my business but it's also political. In Paris we know that the news in North America is becoming more and more interesting. For the first time there are colonials who want to cut the British rule completely, and all against King George the Third. They declared their country to be free! Imagine that! Of course, the king of England is terribly angry, and the English want to block all the trade routes of our goods sent across the Atlantic Ocean, all to destroy the market between us and the colonials. Alas, the British remain our enemies. If only I could have seen the look on his face when he saw the declaration – a written declaration to quit his control of the colonials and the Colonies at the same time. What courage, those colonials over there! So, young sir, that means, for me and others here in France that we need to furnish some secret routes to maintain our business, and therefore we need any fellows who could speak English to conduct the secret exchanges.")

The man was obviously someone who wanted to facilitate the covert stretching of France's own market interests against England in light of what was happening in the American colonies. The man looked at Jacques and asked if he too could speak English.

"Non, monsieur." ("No, sir.")

The man added a little more.

"Les colons qui suivent leur but de la liberté, ils refusent à acheter les choses d'Angleterre, alors ils sont pretes à acheter les notres meme plus."

("The colonials who are following the goal of liberty, they refuse to buy things from England, so they are ready to buy ours all the more.")

Jacques looked at his brother as Pierre-François perked up, with his eyebrows perched as if he'd hadn't been so fascinated with anything for quite a long time. Pierre-François asked "La liberté, monsieur?" ("Liberty, sir?")

"Oui, la liberté. C'est une terme utilisée dans la déclaration écrit don't que j'en dit."

("Yes. Liberty. It's a term used in the written declaration that I told you about.")

The nearest seaport to Toulouse was Marseilles on the southern-most tip of France.

"Je ne vie assez prés de la cote." ("I don't live near enough to the coast"), lamented Pierre-François.

The man explained that in order to help keep the trade route operation secret, the loading and shipping convoy employed occasional volunteers brought by carriage from neighboring towns and villages farther inland from the outermost ports, but not the middle provinces. It was presumed that the middle regions of the country would be most likely to send up word of the secret operation to Paris by whatever political informers could tell the royal court, eventually reaching the king. Naturally, there was fear that the king would not approve, at least not yet. The man described how the undercover suppliers designated the secret trade routes so as to segment them away from the usual main established routes that went to continents other than North America. The branches, movement, and chain of authority, following purely French ways of organization were more tightly structured and vertically designed than any British commerce official could infiltrate successfully, or so it was intended.

The man paused for a few moments, allowing Pierre-François to ponder what he was proposing during a slow, careful dipping of a candle wick into a basin of rich, piping hot wax. Jacques didn't immediately try to imagine what his brother was probably thinking at that exact moment. It sounded to Jacques like the man was encouraging Pierre-François to visualize himself being part of a late night crew of young Frenchmen speaking English as a second language to seamen loading and unloading crates on a dock. Such would be seamen not only braving the ravages of ocean voyage with costly French cargo but also braving the risk of mutiny and capture by British warships.

The man did not say what his name is, but offered to leave and return the next day for word of whether or not Pierre-François would be interested in accepting his proposal. The man had no intention of interfering with the candle maker's normal rate of work. Nonetheless, the proposal was not to be taken lightly. What the man was offering Jacques's brother was young, fresh accompaniment in his own state of being a profiteer of the American colonial rebellion. In actual terms, he was asking Pierre-François if he would like to become a smuggler.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ch. 2**

Jacques knew his brother would need the whole rest of the day and throughout the evening to think about what was just proposed by the man who came into the candle shop. Before he left, the man said he would come back the next day for Pierre-François's answer to the proposal to take him on as a deck hand in a secret trade operation. Jacques and his brother rightly assumed that the man had been making rounds to employ others for the position, at their places of trade and as a routine, presumably until the positions would be satisfied. There was no pressure for Pierre-François to say yes.

The next afternoon at the candle shop, the man had returned, learning directly from Pierre-François that he was able to take the time to participate in the operation. This was mostly due to the fact that he had no wife to care for and no children to help tend to after a full day of work in his trade. The man had pointed out that each of the secret deck hands would be fully able to arrive for the duties. There would be no such occurrence as overwork of one deck hand, as far as the man assured them. Family life would be little disrupted, even as volunteers living outside the port city of Marseilles would be away from their homes for days and nights on end. What the man represented applied the best of respect to European values. As far as Jacques was concerned, it was perhaps an additional source of motivation for his brother to accept the proposition. Jacques was unaware of how the idea of what the operation was to accomplish in total outweighed appreciation that Pierre-François working at night as a deck hand would not ruin the functioning of the Simonieux household or the family candle trade. Due in part to the fact that Jacques didn't know how to speak English, he accepted that he was not invited to be a part of his brother's participation in the operation. Then there was the matter of his upcoming marriage event. Young men who were about to be married would be too distracted, he surmised, especially in that the entire operation was to be doubtlessly regarded as a very unique and politically inspired undertaking. What would the rest of the family and others who know them think? Business associates in town would notice Pierre-François's absence in the candle shop. What's more, who in normal civilian French society would take on loading dock work at night?

Fully aware that his brother was likely to accept the proposal even after hours of thinking it over, Jacques struggled with the idea that Pierre François's involvement in the operation might have a questionable effect on the wedding. It might create an air of discomfort. As far as Jacques could imagine, talk during the time of the feast may gravitate toward the matter of his brother's new project. Doubtless once the work would be started there would be wondering openly about why any member of the Simonieux family, known for virtuous, valuable service in the trade of candle making would take on such a project, even if it would only be a temporary one. In a sense, Jacques was eager to find out if it would even make a difference in the end.

The early morning came without open discussion on the subject at bedtime the night before. That night had been his brother's last chance to have time to think deeply and silently about the decision he was about to make, fully concentrating on it before the usual time to concentrate on candle work.

Jacques came into his brother's room. "Pierre-François, tu reveilles?" ("Pierre-François, are you waking up?")

His brother answered with more than just to let him know he was awake for another day of work.

"Oui. J'ai revé d'accepter le travail surtout pour la liberté des Americains. Pas pour gagner plus d'argent, pas simplement pour pratiquer mon anglais, et pas pour faire quelque chose so different à part de fabriquer des chandelles. La liberté pour les Americains serait plus importante que ces choses que je voudrais pour moi-meme. Alors, j'accepterai la proposition."

("Yes. I dreamt to accept the work all for the liberty of the Americans. Not to earn more money, not simply to practice my English, and not to do something so different besides make candles. Liberty for the Americans would be more important than these things that I would want for myself. So, I will accept the proposal.")

With no advice from anyone else, Jacques's brother had made his decision overnight, finally though a dream he had that it would be the right thing to do. Jacques was astonished that the influence of what the man who came to the shop to make the proposal had said about liberty had come to be so strong. All along since the man had walked out of the shop, Jacques had presumed that just the excitement of getting involved with something that had political purpose, and perhaps the challenge and satisfaction of practicing English in the process, would be the only drive for Pierre-François to decide to accept. After all, the political purpose applied to the people of the American colonies – a place not a single member of the Simonieux family had ever been to and a people they had never met nor conducted business with.

Overpowering the banality of ordinary candle work for the morning hours, Jacques saw Pierre-François's eyes to be noticeably bright, what an Englishman would call "chipper", obviously eager for the man's arrival. Jacques almost envied him, wishing he too could be propositioned for something that was much greater than fine candle making. He however felt nothing to imply to himself that his upcoming occasion to be married was of lesser significance, whether by his own Gallic pride nor by his view of his brother. Older brother Rémy had for a long time been the kin the both of them had aspired to become like, and as soon as their personal circumstances would allow. For that reason, they both were glad that Rémy had not been privy to the proposal, even though they both knew he would soon find out about Pierre-François's decision to take the work project. Young sister Babette, they already were confident about, would never mind the position of Pierre-François doing what he was about to do, just as they never minded the childish affections and precocious romantic ways of hers. The reasons were natural, and in fact very French.

Jacques was scratching the sleeve of his white shirt as the familiar man walked in, dressed in the same clothing he had worn the day before, and smelling the same. To impress the man, Pierre-François said what he wanted to say in English.

"I've made my decision, sir. I've decided to accept the work you have proposed to me yesterday."

Although Jacques knew that his brother was saying yes to the proposal, he didn't understand the language of him saying it. So that Jacques wouldn't feel left out of hearing the important statement, Pierre-François repeated word for word an exact translation.

"J'ai fait ma décision, monsieur. J'ai décidé à accepter le travail que tu m'a proposé hier."

Back to speaking their native language, the man wasted no time when discussing the details of the work further than what was described the previous day. This time it was about who to meet for the gathering of volunteers and what to do as a new man on the crew arriving on the first night. Food and wine would be for purchase out of the money earned for the work, as in a sort of commissary. Boarding for volunteers who reside outside of the port city of Marseilles would be a secret shelter as well. It was to be the storage attic above a pier office. As the man said, crew workers who happen to live in or near the port would simply go home at dawn, some by quiet carriage rides provided graciously. This man was a bookkeeper of the secret work and held the roster of workers, never to be seen at the dock at night. It was assumed that the man covered his secret affiliation with daytime dock supervision duties to the conventional pier activity with seamen, including captains of the ships. Even without knowing his name, hints came that the man was clearly in an individual to be respected by whoever was in service to him. Exemplifying French tradition of highly formal administrative practices, the man described his own responsibilities of being as careful as possible with every item of paper note, known as a dossier, concerning each crew member as well as his work. The man added his opinion that if never lost or destroyed, the dossiers of this secret operation may someday be a valuable artifact in the history of their country. As explained, and just so Pierre-François would be aware of it, all documentation of the secret operation's Marseilles port functioning depended on the man.

Luckily, Jacques knew of a friend from his years of attendance in the Toulouse parish school who would be available to replace Pierre-François in the candle shop for the time being until word would arrive when Pierre-François would return from participation in the secret loading dock work. The man had no need of any formalities except for Pierre-François's signature on a contract, both knowing that the candle business would not suffer from the absence of Pierre-François. The timing was perfect. The friend, a local city boy named Gilles Déchamps was about to start an apprenticeship of candle making. Pierre-François and Jacques both paid him a visit immediately after the day's work. The man, continuing to refrain from saying who his name was, came along with them to see to it that the boy would agree to start the apprenticeship under the Simonieux family and no one else. That, of course, would serve as an assurance that Pierre-François would not have to return to his normal candle making prematurely and lose his place in the loading dock work. There was no need for even the smallest trifle of misinformation to encourage the compliance of Gilles. The alibi would be simply that Pierre-François would be unable to make himself present in the candle shop for a spell. The secret operation was not to be mentioned to the boy. For Pierre-François and his enthusiasm to be a part of the secret work, he was fortunate that Gilles was finished with his schooling and ready for work in the town. Happily, Jacques remembered childhood visits to each other's homes, and knew Gilles could be trusted for favors whether they had to do with business or not. The boyhood companion had once rescued a large parcel of Simonieux candles worth several francs away from a bandit. Jacques had sensibly told the man so. During the discussion with Gilles of the apprenticeship, the subject of the boy's attendance at the wedding became secondary.

Then, the inevitable question came. It was a question even a child would think of. Wouldn't the rest of the Simonieux household fret with wonder the entire time? At the instant of thinking about it, the greatest dilemma would be what to explain upon his return from the secret loading dock work, particularly out of the vicinity of where they live. Jacques felt his brother's hand on his shoulder and knew that neither of them would create the false illusion that the absence of Pierre-François had anything to do with the candle business. That would simply be beneath their dignity and level of maturity, not to mention that there would be no way to prove such a thing, and certainly not to the benefit of the candle shop. Jacques decided that now was the time to think of something to say to the rest of the family that would not even slightly imply that Pierre-François had been involved in something so much as indirectly political.

Pierre-François was the one who had the idea of what to say.

"Nous pourrions les dire que je faisais un projet charitable, celle qui soit parmi tes affairs privés, en dehors des affairs familiales."

("We could tell them that I was doing a charitable project, that which is among my private affairs, outside the family affairs.")

After all, if the rest of the Simonieux family would have no qualms about any privacy of a potential courtship of a lady for marriage, there would be no reason to question a social project away from the family activities. A social charity project may be a Church-ordained one, the partaking of which would not be unheard of for any member of their family. For example, what if Pierre-François wanted to do something nice for the local parish to go along with the sentiment of his brother's church wedding ceremony? He was certainly the type who would. For all the rest of the family may imagine, if not the idea of a charitable project, the stay of Pierre-François outside the province might be nothing more complicated than an exploration of another city as a self-imposed means by which he could finally find himself a wife. He was not a pauper and could financially afford to do so. As for the actual reason to do something different from candle making for a little time, the element of charity would be no lie. The entire secret operation as a whole, to begin with, was considered a charitable act for the American rebel cause for independence.

Though he was excited for his brother, Jacques was equally excited that his fiancée's father had sent a letter to let the Simonieux family know that he was about to finish his business in Poland and return to Toulouse to give his daughter in marriage to Jacques. The letter had arrived the day following the decision of Pierre-François to take on the secret dock work. As if part of a special occasion itself, Monsieur Simonieux, as head of the household, read aloud the letter for everyone to hear, and to Jacques it sounded as sweet as the wine that went with dessert. Even sweeter, of course, would be her return. Unfortunately, Jacques had not been allowed to see her during her father's time of business outside of France. She was not even permitted to send him a private letter herself, or arrange for her father to include her words in his own. Alone in bed at night, he had been wondering if he would have been able to see her had there been no obligation of her father to travel out of the country, or even the province. He had accepted it without resentment or complaint, as did her family as well. As a scoff at the silliness of absurd French "rules", an Englishman would have joked that such a requirement placed upon young Jacques may be just a made-up and altogether unnecessary stipulation intended "to make the heart grow fonder". A true Frenchman might have derived enjoyment out of an Englishman being confounded as to whether or not the rule is real and applies to all common folk of France, or merely by the individual choice of the family, or to both families of the bride and groom alike. To an English observer, the French could be proud to pretend that a rule like that is absolutely beneficial for the time of a wedding, and not just for civil and material preparations for the occasion. A newsprint cartoon depicting that, as yet another laugh at English culture given certain political ramifications, would be great fun to share at the secret operation dock work. Doubtless Jacques knew Pierre-François would be open to it, as would Pierre-François's favorite American by which he was inspired to learn to speak English, Benjamin Franklin.

As both Jacques and his brother realized, there would be one complication besides the possibility that the unusual new task for Pierre-François may take on a strange feeling for the family at the wedding. There was no audacity to request to the important man who met them that Pierre-François forego his participation until after Jacques' wedding. Had the secret dock work bore no political involvement, the two brothers would have taken it upon themselves to make such a request.

There was the risk of the secret night crew being discovered by the authorities, and worse, maybe a British infiltrator disguised as a French volunteer for the secret work, speaking the language and covering an English accent. During the time of the discussions with the man who had proposed the task to him, there was no mention of what crewmen need to do to protect themselves as they go about the work. The closest they came to hearing of a precaution was a brief reply that the crewmen be dressed in black cloaks and wearing black caps on their heads, as in winter funeral attire, when Pierre-François asked how he is to be attired for the work. Obviously, the black clothing would be to blend in with the dark of the night, and for the purpose of what the secret dock work was meaning to begin with, gallantly tolerated in the warm weather of the region. Whether upon his return home or before, if the Simonieux family would hear of the actual task being done, there would be the fear that Pierre-François would likely end up in jail.


End file.
